The French Senate has done the decent thing and shot down President Macron's idea of redesigning Notre Dame Cathedral.
The World famous cathedral was partially damaged in a serious fire last month and now requires extensive repairs. This led many anti-traditionalists and Leftists to propose redesigning the cathedral to make it more "representative" of "modern day France." One idea was even to turn it into a multi-faith building, where Muslims and other faiths could also worship. But now the French Senate has ruled that the Cathedral must be rebuilt as faithfully as possible to how it looked before the fire.
As reported by The Local, France's English language news site:
On Monday evening, the French Senate approved the government's Notre-Dame restoration bill - but added a clause that it must be restored to the state it was before the blaze, striking a blow to the government which had launched an international architecture competition to debate ideas on the restoration.
The subject of the rebuilding of the cathedral - which was left badly damaged after fire tore through the roof and destroyed the spire on April 15 - has become a fraught battleground between traditionalists who want an exact restoration and others who favour a more imaginative take.
Some of the suggestions have included a rooftop garden, an 'endless spire' of light and a swimming pool on top of the building.
The Senate has now approved the restoration bill already passed by the French parliament to allow work on the structure to be completed in time for the Paris Olympics in 2024 - but requires that the restoration be faithful to the “last known visual state” of the cathedral, in an attempt to check the government, which has launched an international architectural competition soliciting designs for renovation.
The Senate is dominated by the centre-right Les Republicans. The more right-wing National Rally party of Marine Le Pen, which won the recent European Parliamentary elections in France, only has one Senator thanks to the complex election process that was designed to exclude radical populist parties.
